Imperfecto o Indefinido

Question

¡Hola! Soy un chico de Bulgaria y estudio español... Pero el Imperfecto es un poco difícil para mí y aquí tengo una pregunta: En 1970, trabajé / trabajaba en una gasolinera. ¿Imperfecto o Indefinido?

Answer 1

Im definately not an expert on this, but i agree with Cordobesa. It can go both ways depending on the way you view it.

Trabajaba= I used to, or I did and still do.

Trabajé= I worked and I don't anymore.

Answer 2

That's why I am wondering, because there isn't any context. It's just a sentence I found in one of the exercises in the textbook. And there are three possible answers:

1. En 1970, _________ en una gasolinera. a) he trabajado b) trabajaba c) trabajé

I'm sure that a) is wrong, because the action is in the remote past, so we cannot use Pretérito Perfecto...

So I'll mark b) trabajaba as the correct one.

I'm sorry if my English is bad, as I said, I'm Bulgarian... And I'm studying these languages now.

Don't worry, I'm sure my English is worse! :))) Ok, if you don't have a context, I would prefer "trabajé", because you have a completed action and a specific moment in the past. - Cordobesa, Feb 15, 2012

Mm, thanks again, I decided to mark c) after all. According to my textbook, we use Pretérito Indefinido to talk about "un proceso ya terminado". And as you said, the action in this sentence is already completed, so... I'll go with Indefinido. :) - Parmgrin, Feb 15, 2012

Answer 3

Hi Parmgrin, welcome to the forum

Both are correct. It deppends on the context, the question you are answering to, or the rest of the paragrah you want to write. We usually use the imperfect to describe continuing actions in the past (similar to I used to...).